Saturday, October 17, 2009

As chronicled in this week's Times Magazine profile, General Stanley McChrystal, commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, is taking the current counterinsurgency imperative to win hearts and minds to a new level:

In his first weeks on the job, McChrystal issued directives instructing his men on how to comport themselves with Afghans (“Think of how you would expect a foreign army to operate in your neighborhood, among your families and your children, and act accordingly”); how to fight (“Think of counterinsurgency as an argument to win the support of the people”); even how to drive (“in ways that respect the safety and well-being of the Afghan people”). At the heart of McChrystal’s strategy are three principles: protect the Afghan people, build an Afghan state and make friends with whomever you can, including insurgents. Killing the Taliban is now among the least important things that are expected of NATO soldiers.

The approach to occupation is not exactly new. Compare Shakespeare's Henry V in the midst of his campaign to assert his sovereignty over France, approving the execution of his former friend Bardolph for stealing a holy tablet:

Henry did eventually win effective sovereignty over France, though he died before he could be crowned, and his adversary the French-born Charles VII was crowned in 1429 (thanks to the galvanizing tactics of mujahideen Joan of Arc), fourteen years after Henry's first invasion. The Brits were driven out for good in 1453 -- 38 years after this order to win hearts and minds was allegedly delivered in Picardy.

About Me

I'm a freelance writer and media consultant with a lasting interest in how democracy works, how it malfunctions and self-corrects. Since fall 2013 I've focused increasingly on the unfolding drama of Affordable Care Act implementation and health reform more generally.
I have a Ph.D. in medieval English literature and a propensity to parse the rhetoric and logic of our political leaders as well as that of media pundits and scholars who jump into the national debate. I wrote a dissertation on the remarkably humane and subtle medieval English anchorite Julian of Norwich, a mystic nun whose knack of squaring circles and framing paradoxes reminds me a little of our current president. A sampling of that work (mind the google gaps) is here: http://bit.ly/OzwsrR